SPECIAL ROGO WORKSHOP TO TAKE PLACE MARCH 20; IN-PERSON AND HYBRID

KEY LARGO, FL – The Monroe County Board of County Commissioners will host a special Rate of Growth Ordinance (ROGO) workshop on Wednesday, March 20, at 10 a.m. in-person at the Murray Nelson Government Center in Key Largo and hybrid through Zoom webinar found at www.monroecounty-fl.gov/meetings. The workshop will be the first in a series of meetings that will take place at Board of County Commissioners meetings and with nonprofit and civic groups throughout the summer to start the conversation regarding the Dept. of Commerce’s hurricane evacuation modeling. The hurricane evacuation modeling is based on a Florida Statute requiring that Monroe County residents be able to evacuate the Florida Keys within 24 hours before a storm.

The special workshop will begin with presentations regarding an overview of regulatory takings claims in Monroe County, ROGO history, the current status of ROGO permits remaining within the unincorporated County, Monroe County’s land acquisition efforts, and the County’s potential takings liability as to private property owners who would be unable to build in the future if ROGO allocations become unavailable.  If takings claims are successful, compensation could be the partial responsibility of Monroe County taxpayers.

The Florida Department of Commerce reported in their December 2023 Florida Keys Hurricane Evacuation Modeling Report that there are approximately 7,954 total privately owned vacant properties throughout unincorporated and municipal Monroe County. Of those, 6,086 are located within the unincorporated County. Monroe County Planning Director Emily Schemper will report on further analysis undertaken to estimate the number of parcels where development is already restricted by the presence of protected habitat and/or current zoning density requirements. As of March 2024, unincorporated Monroe County has approximately 154 market-rate ROGO permits remaining to be distributed through 2026, and 144 ROGO permits in reserve for administrative relief and future takings liability.

The series of workshops and meetings that will be held in the coming months will gauge community feedback on finding a “sweet spot” of the number of ROGO permits Monroe County would ask the State of Florida to be awarded that could potentially be issued over the next 10 to 20 years without raising the evacuation modeling to go over the 24-hour evacuation timeframe, and issued at a rate that does not lead to unbalanced growth or additional takings liability.

To schedule a meeting with your group, nonprofit, civic organization, or homeowners’ association, please email Monroe County Strategic Planner Kimberly Matthews at Matthews-Kimberly@MonroeCounty-FL.gov.

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